Musings of a Wandering Writer

Dear America, I've been away for a few days. Did you miss me? Don't think for one second that I've been giving you the cold shoulder! I've merely been on vacation taking in the wonderful sights and sounds of an American summer breaking free from the shackles of a pandemic. For the majority of my life, I've always considered my heart to be in New York City , but my soul will always belong to Miami. Maybe it was a bit too much Miami Vice , but Magic City has always spoken to me on a deep level. It's a land of beauty, neon lights, sunshine, and some of the best damn coffee you'll ever have ( uno cortadito, por favor! ). In every sense of the phrase, it is my holy land, and I had always regretted not having actually ever been there. Last week, I finally made the pilgrimage to my promised land and it certainly didn't disappoint. The smell of the ocean mixed with the scent of good food and cigars, while the pastel colored buildings stood like bright towers. T

Dear America, Happy Juneteenth. Yesterday, while wandering the streets, I observed a most remarkable thing. My roaming took me directly across from a dock where slaves were auctioned and I even walked right past a place where similar slaves were temporarily housed before being shipped off to whatever horrors awaited them further inland. I found this remarkable as less than thirty minutes prior to seeing these places, I came across a sign celebrating none other than Juneteenth. What a sign of evolution, if there ever was one! An atrocity that took a war and countless sacrifices to end is now a memory with a holiday created to signify its destruction. Something I particularly marvel at is how time trounces even the most resilient of things until they are nearly all but forgotten. I'm sure many thought the Soviet Union would always exist, and even more than a few probably assumed a Castro would always lord over Cuba. To be fair, new evils emerge as time goes on, but so do great accomp

As we near the Fourth of July, I thought it would be good to look back on the more patriotic works out there that really celebrate what America is all about. It's honestly been a while since I last saw this one, and I must admit that I've frequently wondered if the creators of this realized they had a multi-film franchise on their hands when they initially put this together. I feel as though I've had several conversations on the premise of this film and each time it's always an interesting thought experiment. * Where You Can Find It:  I viewed this one on Amazon Video where it is available for rent/purchase. General Information  The Purge is a dystopian horror film that was released on 7 June 2013. It was written and directed by James DeMonaco with notable figures, Jason Blum and Michael Bay, producing while distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the first entry in the Purge film franchise, which is expecting its fifth and final addition, The Forever Purge , at some

Dear America, I had an uninvited guest drop in while sitting in the drive thru for coffee yesterday. The gentleman fell on my lap and I could hardly contain my discontent, however I suppose some thrill seekers will try all sorts of things when they're at the end of their rope. Now, I did not drive off with this guy as I think we can all guess how it would turn out: he'd try to bolt as I'm crossing an intersection and I'd be left with a head-on collision while he's off getting laid somewhere. I sent him packing with the flick of my wrist and he went off to serenade some dame by the dumpsters. If you look closely, you'll see what I'm talking about If you're not from the east coast, I suppose I should give a little context. Since around April, my little corner of the free world has been host to a brood of cicadas that only appear every seventeen years. They're about the size of your thumb, they've got red eyes and orange wings and they sing a loud b

Dear America, Lately, I've been dwelling on the concept of perception. How do we see others, and how do we see ourselves? I imagine most of us have wondered how we're perceived by our peers since high school. Why do we care though? Is it validation? Perhaps a tie to ego or sexual urges? I'm sure some psychologists somewhere could properly explain it. One of the things I've toyed with as a writer is imagining how someone else perceives themselves. Have you ever looked at a person and wondered "I wonder what he/she sees when they look in a mirror?" It's a big question, I think. A lot of this great country suffers from depression, low self-esteem, loneliness, and a deep addiction to SpongeBob SquarePants re-runs (for the record: I am not a member of the latter). What a dark and terrible world some of these reflections must be. It takes a great deal of empathy to even consider looking at the world through someone else's eyes. Do they see monsters in their

Ever since Outland , I've been searching for that next hidden gem however the road to quality film viewing is paved with potholes like Leviathan and Split Second . This one had been on my to-do list for quite a while, but something about it always gave me pause to actually press the "play" button. I'm thinking it was probably the trailer showing a grimy Daniel Stern running around in a grubby tank top, but it turns out this film had a lot more to offer than just poor hygiene. 1 Where You Can Find It:  I viewed this one on Amazon Video where it is available for free to all Amazon Prime members. General Information  C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) is a science fiction horror movie that was first released on 31 August 1984. It was directed by Douglas Cheek and distributed by New World Pictures as part of a limited theatrical release. In 27 September 1989, the sequel, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. , was released as a straight-to-home-video productio